Morse-based fibering of the persistence rank invariant (Q2080086)

Let \(K\) be a finite simplicial complex filtered by subcomplexes \(K^u\) with \(u\in{\mathbb R}^n\). Assume that \({\mathbb R}^n\) has the natural partial ordering: \(u\preceq v\) if \(u_k\leq v_k\) for \(1\leq k\leq n\). By considering the \(i\)-th homology groups \(H_i(K^u)\), one obtains a multi-parameter persistence module \({\mathbb V}_i\). Suppose that \({\mathcal V}\) is a discrete gradient vector field on \(K\) (equivalently, \(K\) possesses a discrete Morse function) that is compatible with the filtration. Let \(C\) denote the set of all \(v\) for which there is a critical cell from \({\mathcal V}\) that is in \(K^v\) but not in \(K^u\) for any \(u\preceq v\). And let \(\overline{C}\) be the least upper bound closure of \(C\). Under mild restrictions on the filtration, the authors of the article show that for any pair \(u\preceq v\), the rank \(\rho_{{\mathbb V}_i}(u,v)\) of the map \(H_i(K^u)\rightarrow H_i(K^v)\) is equal to \(\rho_{{\mathbb V}_i}(\overline{u},\overline{v})\), where \(\overline{u}\) denotes the greatest lower bound of \(u\) in \(\overline{C}\). Now suppose that \(L\) is a line of positive slope in \({\mathbb R}^n\). A one-parameter persistence module \({\mathbb V}_L\) is obtained by restricting the filtration to only those \(K^u\) with \(u\in L\). It is shown that \(\overline{C}\) can be used to partition the set of all lines of positive slope, such that if \(L\sim_{\overline{C}}L'\), then \({\mathbb V}_L\) and \({\mathbb V}_{L'}\) have isomorphic persistence diagrams. This gives rise to an algorithm that computes the persistence diagram of \({\mathbb V}_L\) from the diagrams of a collection of chosen equivalence class representatives. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1487.55002].